Soaring home prices spur changes to environmental law

California’s main environmental protection law
is slated for reform in the name of affordable housing.

With the median home price in California now over $500,000,
developers and real estate agents say the best remedy is to build
more homes fast. But the California Environmental Quality Act,
passed in 1970 as a more stringent supplement to the National
Environmental Policy Act, requires lengthy reviews of development
projects to determine their environmental impacts.

Earlier this year, two state agencies drafted legislation to speed
up approval of new housing developments by reducing environmental
review and public opportunities to challenge projects. The
proposals reflected Gov. Schwarzenegger’s pledge in his
January "State of the State" address to eliminate the "regulatory
and the legal hurdles that delay construction and increase the
costs for new housing."

One of the proposals, drafted by
the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, "looked to us like
a long developer’s wish list," says Karen Douglas,
legislative director of the Planning and Conservation League, a
nonprofit lobbying organization. According to the Los
Angeles Times, real estate firms, mortgage lenders and
developers gave more than $13.5 million to Schwarzenegger, R,
during his 2003 campaign, making those industries the
governor’s biggest contributors.

None of the
administration’s proposals have made it to the state
Assembly. But a bill sponsored by State Sen. Don Perata, D, would
expand existing exemptions from full environmental review for
infill developments within already-urbanized areas. The size limit
would increase from four acres and 100 units to 10 acres and 300
units, says Tom Martinez, Perata’s spokesman.

Douglas says Perata’s bill is better than the state
proposals; such limited exemptions, which encourage development
without threatening farmland and open space, could be part of "a
serious effort to fashion good growth." But, she says, the
environmental law is still vulnerable to more significant changes:
"The governor has a lot of power."